


Vanquished

by Fluffysnightmare



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, Killing Curse, Prophecies Are Complicated, Prophecy, what if
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-01
Updated: 2017-07-01
Packaged: 2018-11-22 00:56:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11369211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fluffysnightmare/pseuds/Fluffysnightmare
Summary: Vanquish: verb (used with object)1.   to conquer or subdue by superior force, as in battle.2.   to defeat in any contest or conflict; be victorious over.3.   to overcome or overpower.





	Vanquished

**Author's Note:**

> Please note that this work is not beta-ed. As such, there may be mistakes, so feel free to point them out, so I can correct them. Also, you might want to look up into Greek Mythology while reading this, especially the myths of Jason and the Golden Fleece, and that of Perseus (just for background info about prophecies).  
> Please enjoy!

 

_ The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies... And the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not... And either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives... The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies... _

 

As Albus Dumbledore heard the voice of Sybil Trelawney shift into the hoarse, low tone that proved the utterance of a True Prophecy, he went still and listened very carefully. Before the Prophecy was even finished, he had already analysed it halfway and was working out the last kinks. As a prophecy, he thought, it was rather straightforward. Simple, and to the point. All that was left to do was find the child.

 

Little did he know, prophecies are never straightforward. There are always a thousand ways to interpret one, and just as many choices one can make, be it to act on it -or not. But Dumbledore didn’t think any further and immediately went for the most simple solution -the one he hoped for, the answer to his current Dark Lord problem. And there would be his greatest mistake.

 

 

* * *

 

 

Leagues away, the Dark Lord Voldemort kept a murderous glare on the prostrated figure of his spy while mulling over the two lines of the Prophecy he had just heard. 

_ The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies...  _ Contrarily to Dumbledore, who had needed to witness the Prophecy in person to believe it, he had enough faith in Divination to trust that what had been foretold by the Seer would, in fact, happen. And as soon as the words parroted by Severus Snape made sense to him, he sought to prevent those events from happening. 

 

Unfortunately, prophecies are also built with a failsafe: if one of the characters involved hears, believes in, and actively tries to prevent the realisation of one, it turns into a self-fulfilling mess that usually ends up with said person’s untimely demise -in the worst way possible. Just look at the tale of Perseus! Or the prophecy the King Pelias was told about Jason! So many ways to interpret them, so many things that could have gone differently!

 

And as the Lord of Light searched high and low for pregnant witches having already run into Voldemort thrice, the Dark Lord made a list of all the people in the Order of the Phoenix he had by three times failed to kill, and both wizards came to the same conclusion: the Chosen child would be birthed by either Alice Longbottom, or Lily Potter.

 

And Voldemort chose.

 

* * *

 

 

Samhain. 

Such a fitting way for the future Saviour of the Light to die, on the Day of the Dead!

 

If Voldemort had bothered to sit for a minute and think, if his unstable, broken soul hadn’t already taken his sanity along with his logic, if, if, if…..

 

Anyone else would have thought: _‘Who would be so stupid as to act on a half-heard prophecy?’_ , or _‘You should have tried to find and listen to the whole thing first!’_ and they would have been right, but again, Voldemort had been a little too successful in instilling fear into his servants, and so, no one had even **thought** of arguing with his -currently absent- logic. And so, here he was, the Dark Lord Voldemort, pushing the body of Lily Potter out of his way, still half-blind from the flash of the Killing Curse. He paused for a second above the crib of the mudblood’s progeny to blink away the black dots dancing before his eyes, then focused on the contents of the baby bed...

 

And

.

The 

.

World

.

Stopped

.

Turning  


 

 

The child was awake. Calm, unafraid, looking at him with bright eyes, the exact color of the curse he had just used. Just a baby. Innocent. Not knowing that he was staring his death in the eye. He chirped a laugh, raising his arms towards his would-be murderer as if asking to be held. And Voldemort hesitated.

 

Remembered.

 

Once upon a time…

If things had been different…

Had someone, **anyone** , been there to reach out to him, to just explain why he was so different…

 

And he had just done to this baby exactly what had been done to him. Condemned him to the same fate… Just a baby...

 

Since when did he find it alright to kill babies?

 

Voldemort lowered his wand, still in a haze, and unconsciously, Tom Riddle reached back for the child.

 

* * *

 

 

His mind was running a mile-a-minute. 

_ "The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches…" _

 

_ “with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord…” _

 

“With the power to…” meant the ability, the potential. It meant that he **could** , not that he **would**.

Finding loopholes was usually his thing. Why hadn’t he seen this before? He who usually had several contingencies in place, why hadn’t he seen at least three different ways to interpret the Prophecy?

 

He had been blinded by fear, that’s why.

Had forgone caution, forgotten his wits and acted no better than the children at the orphanage he had grown in, seeking to destroy what he could not understand without even trying to question it.

 

What a fool.

**What a complete and utter fool he had been!**

 

How long had this been going on? How many times had he acted on a whim, lashing out at his most loyal and devoted, throwing Killing Curses like a madman, with no respect for magical blood and no other goal in mind than destruction?

 

Is that what he truly wanted? What would be left once his rampage was done? A barren land, a broken world and thousands dead, and Magic wounded beyond repair? No. He had wanted to heal this world, not condemn it. So when had it all gone wrong? When had he strayed? 

 

Oh, who was he kidding? He knew exactly when it had all gone pear-shaped. He had shattered his soul **sixfold** , for Merlin’s sake! There was **no way** that the soul fragments he had torn hadn’t taken a few important bits with them!

 

He would have to fix this mess, of course. Yes, he had an eternity to do the rest, but reabsorbing one of his earlier Horcruxes would be a priority. Perhaps the diary, for it would be the easiest to access...

 

Ah, but first, he needed to finish up here.

 

He looked down at the baby boy in his arms. 

Red eyes gazed into innocent green. Absently, Tom Riddle remembered the boy’s name.

 

“Harry Potter…”

 

The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord…. or redeem him?

.

.

.

.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you liked it!
> 
> Please don't forget to review.


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